“In Syria it is not a matter of winning or losing. We are fighting against terrorism. The battle is not ending yet, but our army is in control. Secondly, we have created a [program for] reconciliation. And we are really optimistic that if we continue succeeding with these reconciliations, [we will have] a real victory against terrorism,” Mekdad said.
The deputy FM ruled out claims that there are moderate militants in Syria, saying that it is illogical to say there are moderate armed groups. Everybody who carries arms to kill people, to kill soldiers, to kill leaders, to control areas, is a terrorist.
“If they are dissatisfied with any of the government’s polices, they should go to demand their rights and call for reform. And I assure you that President Assad has done this. But they reject anything less than the departure of the leadership. And we cannot accept this. Who will replace the leadership?” He said.
“We are not all angels. But the western countries, including France and the UK, have made the Syrian armed opposition out to be a multitude of angels. And these “angels” have proven themselves to be terrorists. The Syrian government is protecting its own people, is combatting terrorism. When terrorists attack our people, do you expect us to respond by throwing flowers?”
“We are not killing civilians. We are targeting terrorists. The responsible party for all this suffering is these terrorists and their masters outside Syria. We cannot allow this to happen,” he added.
“More than 93 percent of chemical materials have been sent outside of Syria. The rest is something like 40-50 km away, and we are now undertaking security measures to move them outside Syria. Because we don’t want terrorists to target convoys carrying these materials” Mekdad noted.
“I don’t accept that Geneva 2 collapsed. We exercised all flexibility. Frankly speaking, he added, "the other party came with one agenda point, which is the stepping down of the leadership of Syria. We did not go there to give up power."
"How can we hand over government before stopping terrorism?" he went on to say. "And to whom? If we hand over the government, it will go immediately to Jabhat al Nusra and these terrorist groups, not the so-called coalition [National Coalition of Syrian Revolutionary and Opposition Forces]. We are not seeking power, we seek to keep Syria away from being a haven for terrorists.”
NTJ/MB